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Hello Vegan Potluck visitors! It’s finally starting to warm up in Edmonton – last week we still had intermittent snow, but this week I could see a transformation across campus. People were wearing shorts and skirts, t-shirts and polos instead of jeans and sweaters. We have recently had several days with temperatures in the high twenties, and nothing’s better to complement a hot day than a scoop of cool ice cream.

Tiger Tail is a nostalgic flavour for me. I remember trying it for the first time when I was about six, when my family had walked to the corner store for ice cream cones. I liked the combination of tangy orange and interspersed with liquorice (yes, I was the kid that always liked black jelly beans).

Mrs Minty hadn’t had Tiger Tail ice cream in over a decade until we came up with this recipe together several months ago. This recipe uses my top-secret ingredient for intensely fruit-flavoured ice creams, icing, and cakes. Ready? It is…..

OH YEAH!!!!

Yep. Kool-Aid. If you’re the kind of person who abhors artificial colours and flavours, this ice cream probably isn’t for you. I originally tried to make an ice cream base using orange juice instead, and it just doesn’t take like the commercial stuff. Go ahead, double down and use the kool-aid powder, as well as the black food colouring in the liquorice ribbon. It tastes like childhood!

Tiger Tail Ice Cream – Original recipe by Agent Minty

It requires about half an hour of work the night before you intend to freeze the ice cream, and I would advise making the two components sequentially, or having a partner help you – both the caramel and “milk” bases need to be stirred at about the same time.

Combine the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of almond milk in a large saucepan. Heat on medium until sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup of almond milk and the corn starch in a small bowl, whisking until all the lumps are dispersed.

Once the sugar/milk mixture has come to a boil, turn the heat down to keep it at a simmer.

Add the cornstarch/milk mixture, whisking vigorously.

Cook, still stirring, until it reaches the consistency of a light pudding/custard.

Add the remaining almond and coconut milks, whisking continuously.

Once the mixture has started to lightly simmer again, remove it from the heat.

Add in the vanilla, Cointreau, and lemon juice.

Add the Kool-Aid powder. I found that 1 1/4 tsp gave me a good flavour and colour, but if you need something that’s violently coloured, add more. Taste the mixture as you go, to make sure it is satisfactory.

Freeze the base according to your ice-cream maker’s directions. If this is your first time making ice cream, don’t get distressed if the mixture is about the consistency of soft serve ice cream. That’s normal, and it will harden up in the freezer.

This is ready to freeze.

Layer with the liquorice ribbon as described below.

Liquorice ribbon

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup coconut cream (reserved from the can used for the milk base)

1 Tbsp anise extract

Black paste-style food colouring

1 Tbsp molasses

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Cook at medium-high without stirring. The sugar will dissolve in the water. and begin to boil.

The syrup is boiling. Do not stir!

The clear sugar syrup will begin to heat up (warning: this is very hot can will burn if you touch it!). Allow it to cook undisturbed until it starts to become a light amber colour.

Swirl the pot gently, without stirring, until it becomes a dark caramel colour (think the colour of a Werther’s, or dark brown sugar).

Combine the anise extract and milk.

Add the anise milk to the syrup. This will splatter a bit!

Stir virgorously until smooth.

Scrape out a small lump of black food colouring (I used about 1/3 of 1/8 tsp). Stir into the hot caramel. This may take a while to disperse.

Stir in the molasses.

Store in a fridge overnight.

Before combining with the milk base, leave out for a few hours or microwave on low power until the caramel is room temperature.

Layering the ice cream

Use a plastic container to store your ice cream. You will need once with a volume of at least 1.5 litres.

Scoop out approximately 1/5 of your just-frozen ice cream into the container. Smooth it out on an angle.

Drizzle 1/4 of your liquorice caramel on top.

Add another layer of ice cream and more caramel, repeating until both are gone. This doesn’t have to be perfect.

Cover your ice cream with plastic wrap and gently press down to unite all the layers.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before scooping, preferably overnight.

Thanks for stopping by as part of the Virtual Vegan Potluck! Enjoy every taste of the upcoming summer!

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We drove last week to visit sunny Cranbrook, BC and stay with my in-laws for the Easter long weekend. Unlike our hometown, which was covered in a foot of slushy snow when we left, the ground there was already thawed and I could see bight green lilac buds out of the kitchen window.

My mother-in-law is trying to avoid many foods to control some health issues. Any shared food should be vegan (Mrs. Minty’s needs), gluten-free, and without nightshades (tomato, pepper, eggplant), chocolate, or citrus (for MIL). Some things will have to be separated, as my in-laws need meat at least once a day while we still need protein, so for one dinner we had Shish Kebabs, allowing each person to pick only the foods that keep them happy and healthy.

Veggie shish kebabs

I pressed some firm tofu and marinated it in a dijon mustard, herb, and wine vinegar mix. Everyone could choose from mushrooms, sweet potato cubes, pineapple, onion, or zucchini.

For dessert, we some homemade sweets.

My MIL has the sweet philosophy of “my kitchen is your kitchen,” so while she was at work and her husband and Mrs. Minty were running errands I made fudge. This is sometimes called Maple Fudge, but has no maple. It is made from (coconut) cream and brown sugar, plus a few other things. The hard part is waiting an hour and a half for the cooked sugar to cool before beating it. In the meantime, your whole house will smell heavenly!!

The fudge isn’t healthy, but I think it’s fine to eat anything in moderation. It isn’t exactly inexpensive, either… a batch will cost about $5 for supplies, including the walnuts. However, it’s WAY cheaper than stuff you buy at a candy store, and darn impressive!

Brown Sugar Fudge (“Caramel Cream Fudge” from the original Joy of Cooking):

Note: you WILL need a candy (not meat) thermometer, which is big and glass and can be found in most grocery stores. You SHOULD use a stand mixer for step #8, unless you want Popeye arms.

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 corn syrup (the easiest way to measure is to put your pot on a scale and measure 80g of corn syrup into it)

1 cup coconut cream

2 Tbsp margarine

1 tsp vanilla paste (vanilla extract is OK, too)

1/4-1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine both sugars, syrup, salt, and milk in a large heavy saucepan.

2. Heat on med-hi, stirring, until it comes to a boil.

3. Cover and cook 2-3 minutes.

4. Remove lid, clip on a candy thermometer and turn heat to medium (or med-lo if you have cheap, thin pots).

5. Cook WITHOUT stirring until the thermometer reads AT LEAST 234 Farenhiet . Try to catch it at no more than 240F, as if it gets hotter the resulting fuge will be more brittle and grainy.

This cooking step can seem to take forever. Just wait. Don’t stir it or you might start sugar crystallization, resulting in poor quality fuge. This is the point where you will be happy you used a big pot so that the boiling sugar doesn’t splatter all over you and the stove.

6. Meanwhile, put the margarine in the bottom of the bowl for your stand mixer.

7. Once the fugdey syrup is the right temperature, pour it into your mixing bowl on top of the butter. STILL DON’T STIR!!! Allow it to cool until it is no more than lukewarm (at least 1 hour, maybe 2).

8. Add the vanilla and stir. I use the paddle attachment of the Kitchen-Aid and lock in the bowl, and mix on high speed. If you try to use one of those hand-held mixers, you will probably burn out its motor. I have successfully stirred fudge by hand with a wooden spoon. It was not fun.

9. Keep on stirring until you suspect that your fudge is a failure. Keep on stirring. Suddenly it will no longer be shiny, but instead be a nice opaque tan colour.

No longer shiny.

10. Joy of Cooking recommends stirring in 1 cup of walnuts at this point. One of my relatives dislikes walnuts, so I did not. Put your fuge into a pan that has been liberally greased and lined with parchment paper. It’s OK if the fudge doesn’t meet the edges of the pan.

11. I added walnuts on top of half of the fudge and pressed them in.

Waiting for it to firm up!

12. Allow to set for an hour and cut into small squares. People say it can last a week tightly sealed, but no fudge has ever lasted that long in our home.

My friends are great. They are there to call when I need a second opinion about something, or to cheer me up when I’m feeling lonely.

They are beautiful and talented in diverse ways, and I’m lucky to have them in my life. The nice thing is that they will introduce me to new friends, and so the circle grows even bigger over time.

Last night I went to a dinner party at Ali’s house. Between the six of us there, the meal needed to be gluten- and nut-free, and vegan. I volunteered to make dessert because I like a challenge! I learned a lot while making this pie, and because of it’s accommodating nature for the sensitivities of my friends, I’m calling it Friendship Pie.

While looking around for Nanaimo bar ideas a few weeks ago, I found the Daring Bakers challenge hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. I realized that the gluten-free graham crackers would make an excellent base for a crumb-crust pie.

The recipe called for rice, tapioca, and sorghum flours. The bulk store I shop at doesn’t carry sorghum flour, so I used coconut flour instead. Apparently it’s just powdered dried coconut meat! Consequently, while I was mixing up the dough, the kitchen had the wonderful aroma of coconut. I had to veganize it, and adapt it for what I had available in my kitchen.

This was my first time baking gluten-free, and I found the texture of the dough to be unusual – almost crunchy (I am an incorrigible cookie dough eater). They also took about half of the time Lauren recommended for baking.

The recipe made approximately 2 and a half dozen crackers; enough for Annick and I to snack on for two days, plus enough for a thick pie crust and some to give to my friend.

I used the recipe from Veganomicon for the pie crust, which uses yet more coconut! I didn’t bake it for as long as recommended, because I wanted a crust that wasn’t too crumbly. My graham crackers were also well-done, so I didn’t want the crust to taste burnt.

The ganache filling of the pie is a result of a happy accident. In December I tried to make ginger truffles, but the ganache never set firmly enough. As a result, I had a creamy ganache to use as a filling for my Christmas bûche, and I use the same chocolate-coconut milk proportions for an easy, rich filling.

For the final fancy garnish on the cake, I wanted to make white chocolate mousse.

My last attempt at making white chocolate was unsuccessful, but I had a PLAN this time! I made paste with a small volume of coconut milk and the soymilk powder, stirring and pressing with a spatula until all of the lumps were dissolved. To this I added the vanilla and powdered sugar, again making sure that the sugar was dissolved before proceeding.

I then added more coconut milk, because I wanted this to be a whippable custard (?), not a solid chocolate. Next I added the cocoa butter and stirred it until I got an emulsion, then added MORE coconut milk. I let this chill in the fridge so that it would be easier to whip, and meanwhile relaxed.

Once the mixture was the consistency of thin yogurt, I whipped it as much as I could. It didn’t whip as well as coconut cream, but it did get airier. I filled up a tube with it, and piped it onto the pie.

Result: One tasty pie, and several “oh my god this is so good!” comments.